Vivek Ramaswamy

QVT Financial While at Yale Law

Ramaswamy did not start in medicine or in politics. After Harvard he joined QVT Financial, a hedge fund, and kept working there while he attended Yale Law. He became a partner by the age of 28, according to TIME.

Roivant Sciences, 2014

He founded Roivant Sciences in 2014. Signal Ohio describes the model in one sentence: the company acquires rights to drug patents that other companies had abandoned and develops them for market.

The first big test came in 2015. A Roivant subsidiary took a speculative Alzheimer's drug public, in what TIME called the largest biotech IPO in the United States up to that time. The drug later failed. Forbes puts the size of that IPO at $3 billion, a figure this article could not confirm from a second source.

Roivant itself went public later. On September 30, 2021 it closed a merger with Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, according to the press release Roivant filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Its shares trade on Nasdaq under the ticker ROIV. Forbes reports that positive Phase 3 results for brepocitinib, an autoimmune drug, sent the stock sharply higher in late 2025.

The sources disagree on when he stepped back. TIME says he left the chief executive job in 2021. Forbes says he left Roivant in 2020 to write a book and start an investment firm.

Woke, Inc. and Strive Asset Management

The book was Woke, Inc., published in 2021, which became a New York Times bestseller. The firm was Strive Asset Management, which Forbes describes as offering "anti-woke" investment funds. Ramaswamy founded it in Columbus, and it later moved to Texas, Signal Ohio reported. He still holds a stake in it.

He then ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2024. "If we could buy time, we would take time," he told TIME in August 2023, speaking about his campaign travel.

The Department of Government Efficiency

After the 2024 election, Donald Trump named Ramaswamy and Elon Musk as co-heads of the Department of Government Efficiency. It was not a government department. The AP described it in January 2025 as a private effort, and noted that Ramaswamy had said he was too busy with it to seek Ohio's open Senate seat.

He did not stay long. Forbes reports that he left DOGE after a few weeks, amid reports that he had clashed with Musk. He turned instead to the race for governor of Ohio.

The Republican Nomination, May 5, 2026

Ramaswamy won the Republican primary for governor on May 5, 2026, against Casey Putsch, a YouTuber from the Toledo area. Signal Cleveland reported that he took 85 percent of the vote. When the Associated Press called the race, with less than 5 percent counted, he had more than 86 percent. His running mate is Rob McColley, president of the Ohio Senate.

His opponent is Amy Acton, the physician who led the Ohio Department of Health at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2026 he put $25 million of his own money into his campaign. By early September, Newsweek reported, Acton had raised more in 2026, about $11.5 million to his $9.6 million, while he held $26.8 million in cash to her $8.1 million. The RealClearPolling average had the race essentially tied, with Acton up 0.3 points on September 7. The election is on November 3, 2026.

The Roivant Stake in SEC Filings

Forbes lists Ramaswamy's net worth at $2.3 billion as of October 21, 2026, and attributes most of it to his holdings in Roivant. An earlier Forbes estimate, cited by Signal Ohio in April 2026, was $1.8 billion. The $2.3 billion figure in this article is the Forbes estimate, not a calculation of our own, because his full holdings outside Roivant are not public.

The Roivant part can be checked against his own filings. In a Schedule 13G amendment for the position at December 31, 2025, he reported 48,428,792 Roivant shares, or 6.8 percent of the company, made up of 33,709,547 restricted share awards and 14,719,245 shares underlying options. In the next amendment, for March 31, 2026, he reported 25,534,970 shares, or 3.6 percent. Both filings exclude 13,357,857 Roivant shares held only by his wife. Roivant closed at $36.80 on October 21, 2026. At that price his March stake was worth about $940 million. That calculation uses a share count that is seven months old and does not account for any sales since, so it shows the method rather than his current holding.

His state disclosure for 2025, filed in April 2026, listed more than $1.1 million in dividends and capital gains, more than 130 sources of income and more than 100 investments worth at least $1,000 each. He listed three businesses: V Leasing LLC, which owns the private jet he uses on the campaign; One America LLC, a source of book royalties; and GMDH Properties Management LLC, which owns his home in suburban Columbus. He is married and lives in Columbus.

Sources

• What to know about Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy - ABC News
• Is Anyone Having More Fun Running For President Than Vivek Ramaswamy?
• Vivek Ramaswamy
• Roivant Sciences Announces Close of Business Combination with Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp. and Concurrent PIPE Financing
• Roivant Sciences Ltd. - Schedule 13G/A, event date December 31, 2025
• Roivant Sciences Ltd. - Schedule 13G/A, event date March 31, 2026
• Roivant Sciences (ROIV) Stock Price History 2020-2026
• Dr. Amy Acton, who helped lead Ohio's early pandemic response, joins 2026 governor's race
• Ramaswamy, Acton, Husted and Brown win primary elections; Ohio's fall races are set
• Amy Acton's Chances of Beating Ramaswamy in Ohio After Primary Win-Polls - Newsweek
• One Ohio governor candidate made more than $1.1 million last year. The other made 62 cents.
• Amy Acton's chance of beating Ramaswamy after alleged attempted attack - Newsweek